This volume offers a collection of seminal essays by Keith Whitelam on the early history of ancient Palestine and the origins and emergence of Israel.

Abbreviations; Credit List; Introduction, by Emanuel Pfoh; 1. Recreating the History of Israel; 2. The Emergence of Israel: Social Transformation and State Formation following the Decline in Late Bronze Age Trade (with R.B. Coote); 3. Israel's Traditions of Origin: Reclaiming the Land; 4. Between History and Literature: The Social Production of Israel's Traditions of Origin; 5. The Identity of Early Israel: The Realignment and Transformation of Late Bronze-Iron Age Palestine; 6. Sociology or History: Towards a (Human) History of Ancient Palestine?; 7. The Search for Early Israel: Historical Perspective; 8. 'Israel Is Laid Waste; His Seed Is No More': What If Merneptah's Scribes Were Telling the Truth?; 9. Palestine during the Iron Age; 10. The Poetics of the History of Israel: Shaping Palestinian History; 11. Representing Minimalism: The Rhetoric and Reality of Revisionism; 12. Transcending the Boundaries: Expanding the Limits; 13. Imagining Jerusalem; 14. Interested Parties: History and Ideology at the End of the Century; 15. Resisting the Past: Ancient Israel in Western Memory; 16. The Death of Biblical History; 17. Architectures of Enmity; Index